Well friends,
as a [the?] Swede on this list I guess it's up to me to relate the
details...
Phil Ethier wrote:
> ...Another main character drove a Volvo P1800, which is another
> British car.
The 1800 is, and is not, a British car... It was built in Britain
- and it was built in Sweden... [Most of them were built in Sweden
between 1963 and 197X-something. '73-75? I'm not sure. ]
It was designed in Sweden - and it was designed in Italy... [Most
of the design/redesign work was done in Sweden.]
It was built out of components manufactured in Sweden, Scotland,
England, Germany, Italy, Ireland and USA - among other countries.
So in essence it was an International car...
The Volvo P1800 was designed in 1957 by Swede Pelle Pettersson [now
mainly of sailing boat fame - Americas Cup and Olympic class boats
etc.] and the Italian company Frua [in Turin] built the three 1957
prototypes for what was then known as Project P958. After the final
Volvo board approval to build and market this "image creator" the
actual manufacture of the car body was subcontracted to the Pressed
Steel Co Inc. who undertook to press and assemble the bodies at their
Linwood plant in Scotland. Painting and final assembly of the car was
subcontracted to Jensen Motors Co of West Bromwich, Birmingham. This
was mainly due to the definitive lack of spare manufacturing capacity
in both Olofstrom and Gothenburg... The Jensen contract was for 10000
cars, and they are easily identified by the curved chrome strip along
the upper door side, btw.
Later on, in the spring of 1963, there was enough spare manufacturing
capacity in the, by now enlarged, Volvo plants in Sweden to build the
cars here - so manufacture was transferred to Gothenburg.
When this was done one of the benefits is said to have been a vastly
increased quality of the final product. In retrospect it now seems
the major problems appears to have been the frequently poor quality
of the Scottish made bodies, while Jensen were frequently at fault
in the quality of their cellulose paintwork and sealing. The last of
the 1800's left the Jensen plant in March 1963. The cars were then
redesignated 1800S, without the P prefix and with an S [for Sweden?]
suffix. The Jensen assembled cars have chassis numbers up to 6000
while Swedish made ones start off with number 6001. The Swedish built
1800S have a chrome strip going straight past the door with no curva-
ture along the body edge.
[I'm no expert on the 1800 - I've always looked upon the 1800 as just
another boring and common-on-the-roads Volvo. With the same ever-
lasting, as it seems, life as the rest of the Volvo boxes. So it
might very well have been a significant difference in build quality;
All of the British cars of the era are now gone from our roads but
the occasional PV, Amazon/120 or 1800 can still be seen - in everyday
traffic use... :-) 30-40 years on.]
Best regards
/Odd
--
Odd Hedberg
Pomonagatan 4 International liaison secretary,
SE-74236 Vsthammar Registerverdare, MHRF-ansvarig mm mm
Sweden Triumph Club of Sweden
'70 Spitfire Mk3 FD82497LO Signal Red
'80 TR8 DHC EFi TPZDV8AT211468 Midas Gold
E-mail: odd@triumphclub.se
Club URL: http://www.triumphclub.se
Home Phone/Fax/Mobile: Int+ 46-17317131 / 46-17318131 / 46-706917131
Geographical Position: N 60deg 15min E 18deg 23min
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